Shepherd women fall to Glenville

SHEPHERDSTOWN – The look of numbers on a stat sheet can be deceiving as to how a game turned out.

In Saturday afternoon’s contest at the Butcher Center, Shepherd outrebounded Glenville State by two, shot 87.1 percent (27 of 31) from the free-throw line and was 51.8 percent from the floor (29 of 56).

However, Glenville’s 10 3-pointers, combined with 24 turnovers committed by the Rams, gave the Pioneers a 104-87 victory to increase their winning streak to 17 games.

“We outrebounded them, which is a rare thing to do, and went to the free-throw line enough, but we turned the ball over too much and were hurt by their 3-point shots,” Shepherd coach Melanie Ford said. “We needed to value possession, and there were times that we didn’t.”

Shepherd (11-12) started the contest with a 4-0 lead on a layup by Jimyse Brown and a jumper by Emily Daniel, but the Pioneers responded with an 18-4 run that was stopped by Rachel Johnson, who buried a 3-pointer to drop the lead back to single digits.

Glenville stretched the lead to as large as 12 on three occasions before Shepherd cut the lead back down to two.

Three pull-up jumpers from Johnson and four free throws from Weakland made the score 29-27 in favor of Glenville before the run was stopped by a pair of layups from Ginny Mills.

The Rams pushed the lead back down to two points on two other occasions before the Pioneers stretched the lead back out to 11 by halftime.

Shepherd was able to cut the Pioneer lead to as little as seven points on multiple occasions, but the 3-pointers from Glenville kept the Rams at a safe distance, stretching the lead to as large as 19 points before the final buzzer sounded, settling out at a 17-point lead.

Daniel led all Shepherd scorers with 20 points. Alex Tamez and Johnson added 16 and 13 points, respectively, and both Gabby Flinchum and Brown each finished the contest with 10 points.

Glenville (22-2) finished the afternoon with four players in double figures. Kenyona Simmons led all scorers with 24 points. Ashleigh Fossett added 23, and Mills and Kenyell Goodson finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.